This money spike coincided with Citizencon, their yearly superfan event. It's mostly the sunk cost whales giving them money at this point. And as usual we have to take their word for it, there's no way to verify the actual amount.

No, all you haters and shit talkers are the brainwashed cultists. You know nothing about game development, you know nothing about the development of this game, how much is done behind the scenes...YOU'RE THE CULT. Blindly following what others say with no actual perceptions of what's happening or your own original thought. That's a cult.

You don't know anything about game development either so stop trying to use it as an excuse to defend this scam of a game. You should go donate some more money soon so you can get another alpha version of a ship to download.

lmao, you're so deep into this game you're blind to the overall situation concerning it because they kept feeding you update reports to keep you happy

all it takes is a glimpse to see this project was too much for RSI to handle. The game scope is already all over the place. They kept adding shiny new things to the mix without any regards

why even hire so many expensive stars? it's a nice touch but way too expensive for something gamers care little about. okay, cool, you have included faceware and FOIP technology in the game (seriously though that was cool). but how much money and TIME went into that? you do realise it's gonna be nothing more than a gimmick at the end, right?

it's like they don't have people who can keep the scope within reason and kept getting distracted by every new thing they found. I just hope they can get the base content finished before people get fed up and suddenly they found themselves run out of money, or worse, mismanagement causing sudden cancellation like what happened at Telltale games.

Aren't you the one who said I was clueless on game development, despite my rather apparent and knowledgeable comments from almost the past decade on here which make it apparent that I know a thing or two because I work in said industry?

Sorry, but an alpha that goes on for years, and new features being added before they even release what they promised the original backers, all while having some supremely expensive "micro" transactions. No campaign to play. No fully fleshed out game to play on the original scope they promised, much less the vast feature creep that they themselves implemented. Just some random implementations of parts of the full game.

What I know about alphas is that they release them on an early version of the game which is mostly complete to test bugs and see what they need to work on. Not as a partial demo to placate the users who they want to keep asking for money from. What exactly do you think an alpha is? At best, I'd call this an early access, but the game is now 4 years delayed.

What they have now isn't an alpha, it's a carrot.

Constantly dangling small additions, showing some great screen shots, and talking about how they're coming along nicely on all these things that weren't even part of the original project, all along with stating how if they just get more money they can do all these great things....and some people just lap it up. Sometimes I'm curious if they just lie about how much money they're making, because its inconceivable to me that they could maintain this revenue paradigm for as long as they have, because while there are suckers out there, eventually people start to become frustrated, and I'd think by now, they'd have lost a lot of these people through mere attrition.

You know what I think would be great? If they completed the game that they got backers to back in 2011. The one they said would be released in 2014. 3 years shows that the scope was nowhere near what it is now. But to be almost the end of 2018, and they don't have a full release? Or haven't shown that they've even close to completing that original promise almost 7 years later. Even based on the original full game they promised, they have maybe 1-2 years of work to make it all happen, and that's if they focus on making that happen.

But...yeah, we're the cult.

But, what would I know right? I'm completely detached from this project. I didn't fund it. I won't fund it. I might buy it when it's complete. I love Wing Commander, and a fan of Roberts past work. I'm obviously bias and clueless, despite offering up actual reasons why people are upset, while you just throw around that others are haters.

Agreed. I defended them for the longest time but the writing was on the wall when they decided to charge to stream their convention. Its pretty clear its just a cash grab. I'm not saying a full game will never come out but it will be a huge let down for sure.

Don't bother asking here. N4G is just a bunch of console fanboys that will probably never get to play this game. The narrative here is "the game is a scam because other people are saying it even though I don't actually know anything about it".

See, this is the stupid shit I'm talking about. What makes it a scam? Name me something. What, some missed release dates? WHO CARES! ALL GAMES DO IT! Development goals change, funding and what's possible changes. It's WHYYYY Roberts didn't want a publisher so he wasn't FORCED to release something HE DIDN'T WANT TO.

What else? The 500 employees? The multiple studios? The multiple updates showing all this?

You people make no sense. You're just repeating the same nonsense like the rest of your cult are.

Give me an actual reason it's a scam. Do you even know what a scam is??

At this rate, you're probably never going to get to play it either lol. That also happens to be the reason why its a scam. They are selling you what will be average graphics in 10 years time, but taking your money today. The alpha build only looks advanced compared to the present day standard. When it finally comes out, it will be average.

You hate on consoles but the truth is that if any AAA developer spent as much time on their PS5 or Xbox Two game and leaked how it looked today, Star Citizen would be put to shame.

It's not a scam per say but no one in their right mind should keep supporting a game that has been under development for nearly 10 years at this point. People can throw money into what they well damn please but rational people seeing this unfold can't help wonder what went wrong with this scenario. When they keep constantly changing their lofty goals they will never see the end of the games development at this rate.

And anyone who explains why its a scam you just say are ignorant. Or dumb. Or know nothing about game development.

Yet you have all these people who seem to understand what they're upset about, and many of them able to express what they're upset about.

I don't care about the game myself....not much of a PC gamer anymore. Yet I fully understand why people are upset, and when I see people like you, I tend to be more forceful in my assertions in showing you as unreasonable and just plain wrong.

You seem a lot more triggered over people calling this a scam than those who feel its a scam. I've seen original funders of this game from it's first push not as upset as you are, despite criticizing heavily.

You behave like you're Chris Roberts himself, and we're pounding on your door accusing you of being a thief....and ran over your puppy on the way up the driveway. That isn't a rational way for a unbiased person to behave on a topic like this. If you like the game, fine, play the alpha and have fun. Others calling it a scam isn't going to change that, and the game isn't hurting for money to fund it. If anything, they could make 4-5 games on what they've gotten so far.

What they have is good. But it's not a full game. It's basically about what you'd get in a demo trying to show off one part of a bigger game. Say, like a racing game just giving you one car and a three lap race to see what its like. In this case, you have several of those small demo parts of a game. You have some disparate features, but nothing that really holds them altogether in a cohesive game.

There is promise for the game. They just have to finish and release it, and maybe get away from adding new things to try and be the best, and include everything imagineable. That added stuff should be done as a way to keep people invested in the game after release, but Roberts has found that he can make just as much money, and fulfill his fantasies in game development by releasing it the way he is, and making money hand over fist.

For all the fluff that Roberts has gone on about in terms of trying to make this one of the most visually stunning games ever made, by the time that it releases, it will have dated graphics, because everyone else is already starting, or using the things that he's doing to make better graphics. This game started on 2011 level hardware. That changed to 2014 level hardware, and soon, we'll be running 2019-2020 hardware. He can't just keep updating for every year of delay. He talked down consoles as being capable for Star Citizen...barely saying that X1X might be good enough. But by the time goes to full release the next gen will be in full force.

I was very tempted to jump on the Star Citizen hype train, I even considered one of those pricey ships too. But I decided to put my hard earned money somewhere I will actually see a finished product. So I preordered the Atari VCS instead

This dude must either be on the development team or has donated countless amounts of money to this scam. FYI no ones been proven wrong until a full fledged game is actually released, not just feeding people alphas to keep them paying.

Game isn't from the ground up anymore. If it is, that's a decision by the developer.

Things keep changing. That's the problem. All these changes, yet they haven't even come close to delivering the original promises, and are 4 years delayed from the initial expected release date of 2014.

These things can take time, but the time its taking is completely on the developer because they keep changing things, and not even finishing what they already had.

In the industry, that's called feature creep, and it's usually discouraged beyond some minor alterations or things that may make a game a bit better, and publishers prohibit the level of feature creep this game has had because it causes delays this long, and costs a lot of money.

You are readily admitting that Roberts can't manage this game, and he's changed directions a few times now, added many things along the way, and generally hasn't shown that he is anywhere close to a final release. That is poor management of a project. Plain and simple. He would have already been fired from this game had he been working for a publisher, and likely, the game would have been scrapped if it didn't have a way to get money ahead of time.

Publishers may be a**holes about a lot of things, but they know how to make money, and certainly how to make a game. They may or may not be good managers, but usually when you see projects that end up going through development hell like this game....which is what we have here, except that it's been lucrative for the dev, just not the customer....they don't usually ever release, or end up being good.

But let me guess. Those publishers don't know anything about game development either.

Perhaps you should enlighten them on what they don't know with your infinite wisdom.

And you responding to all my comments with ZERO proof of anything makes you what exactly? Sounds like a shill to me. I'm over here watching them progress and make an amazing game with features ALREADY unmatched by any game ever and all you're doing is saying it's a scam with no backing.

Clearly you dont know what a shill is then. Anyone with working eyeballs and ears can tell this is a scam what more proof do you need? Look feel free to throw your money at it and defend it if you want theres a sucker born every minute, but if you do work for or are affiliated with the developer in any way then you should be ashamed of yourself. You sound super brainwashed though for real.

This game has raised $1M in 4 days (it usually takes a month) because the Alpha 3.3 has made the game an actual playable one. The game is now completely playable from start to finish with decent framerates (from 30ish before the test to 70+FPS), and little stutter here and there. This gives confidence to backers that the game is being developed and making progress. But of course, as usual, this is not mentioned because it is so cool to hate on Star Citizen and call it a scam.

Yeah. That makes more sense. What they have released isn't bad, although nothing revolutionary. It's just limited. I know some people were complaining about performance issues though. The revolutionary stuff seemed to be from the original scope of the game, which they haven't delivered on yet, and it's that which most people are really taking issue with.

Um no most people were getting single digit to 12-15 frames in busy areas and now you can get almost 30 pretty steady. Also I cant stand the tired excuse "its cool to hate on plug game in hear" thats the fast way to show you're a fanboy who will praise said thing no matter what direction, bad idea or questional thing the dev does, its also the fast way to make your OP meaningless and a waste of time expressing it.

Yup I don't feel bad for them taking their money at this point if you choose to keep giving them money it's on the people supporting them. This game will never live up to the hype it may turn out to be good but considering how long and how much money has been poured into it will never be enough to please everyone.

I don't honestly see the problem with people paying money to support something, and gaining pleasure from watching progress being made. Feeling invested in something as a backer and rooting it along towards completion is the metagame here, and thousands of people are enjoying it.

What if it's never finished, but continues to evolve, upgrade, and redefine itself? Why does it need a "finished" date?